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Hope for the New Year

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Typing this message, it occurred to Fred that the entry title could have a double meaning. Not only could it refer to the annual sense of possibility engendered by the start of a new year, but it could also refer to Equiliberation's single "Hope" -- a song the band has yet to promote. Although many unseen things lie ahead, one thing Fred hopes to find the time to do in 2012 is promote "Hope" and see if it generates any interest in the online music world. All three of us feel that getting the song out and heard will help us find an audience. Perhaps you, who are reading this, heard "Hope" and found your way here to equiliberation.com. If so, perhaps you would like to download the song for free from CDBaby (see the link on our Homepage). . . . Or maybe you are interested enough to pay $4.99 to download our CD from CDBaby or $5.99 to download it from iTunes.

2011 was a year of activity for Equiliberation: we finally released our debut CD, and we played two shows at a new venue in Houston, Texas. 2012 should be the year we strive to get our music heard by people who don't know us -- the year we make the effort to discover how viable we are as a musical entity. Of course, the three of us continue to live in different cities and states, and we continue to deal with relentless demands on our time, so our hopes may still be awaiting action twelve months from now. Nevertheless, this is -- as we observed at the start of this entry -- a traditional time of hope. So, let us hope for good things to happen to/for Equiliberation in 2012!

More Fun at Super Happy Fun Land

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

We thoroughly re-equiliberated Super Happy Fun Land in Houston, Texas, last night. Playing our longest set in many years, we brought the accessive rock for 90 minutes and wore ourselves out in the process! Elliott remarked that we would have to start playing "Some Wounds" last because when we finished it, he felt drained. . . and "Hope" and "Equiliberation" still remained to be played!

All in all, it was a ragged rock-and-roll extravaganza punctuated by several Equiliberation firsts. For one, we played two new songs, "Complicated Man" (a bit of a jammy, multiple-meter tune partially inspired by Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man") and "Propulsion" (for the most part, a musical enactment of the song's title). For another, we played the song "Waiting," which is on our CD, but which we have never before played live. Third, for the first time ever (as in never even rehearsed), Fred played the drums while Elliott played guitar and sang with Ryan a humorous tribute to their uncle, Jim Bowie (he of Alamo and knife fame). So, it was an interesting and atypical performance for us -- and that is without even mentioning the anarchist puppet show that preceded the evening's musical offerings (see the recollection on our calendar for further details).

So, Equiliberation's return to Super Happy Fun Land was quite the memorable show. Plus, Chris Hayes, a long-time friend of Fred's family (Fred's youngest brother born of different parents, as it were) came to the show with a friend and provided raucous appreciation in the wake of every song (Thanks, Chris! Fred really enjoyed your enthusiasm)!

At this point, we don't know when Equiliberation will rock live again, but 2011 played host to two shows after we played one show in 2010. Maybe we'll keep adding a show a year and play three in 2012! Fred would really like to bring the accessive rock to San Antonio one day, so maybe we'll finally add an SA date to the calendar in 2012. Anyone know where we can get a gig?

Return to Super Happy Fun Land

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Great news! Equiliberation has been booked for a return engagement at Super Happy Fun Land in Houston, Texas! We are scheduled to return to the stage of said fine establishment at 8:00 pm on Thursday, December 29, 2011. It will be the band's second performance of the year, making 2011 our busiest performance year since 2007 (admittedly, two performances in a year isn't much to crow about, but it's pretty exciting when compared with years of NO performances).

So, if you happen to be in Houston during the week after Christmas and you are looking for something to do, why not experience Equiliberation? We'll be bringing enough accessive rock to pulverize any year-end blues you might entertain. Guaranteed.

Check the calendar for more show specifics!

5 Years in Cyberspace!

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Happy birthday to Equiliberation.com. We've made it to half a decade online. Maybe, one day, someone will actually visit our site and read this self-congratulatory journal entry. . . . What a novel idea! Perhaps we should live it up today so that those future Internet archeologists will, at least, have evidence that we had a good time!

Fred Rocks Alamo Stadium!

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Although there is no new Equiliberation information to impart at this time, there is some Equiliberation-related news to share. Tthe above is a video of Fred and his fellow high school faculty members performing Chicago's classic song "25 or 6 to 4" at halftime of this past Friday's varsity football game. Fred had a blast playing with the other teachers, particularly the brass section composed of the school's band directors and mariachi instructor. Of particular note (from Fred's perspective, at least) is the extended guitar solo - most of which Fred improvised on the spot - and the fact that the performance was at San Antonio's venerable Alamo Stadium in front of roughly 2000 spectators. At certain points, the lack of vocal monitors is apparent in the vocals, but, overall, Fred is quite pleased with the performance. He hopes you enjoy it!

Mission Accomplished: Houston Equiliberated

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Playing to our largest crowd ever (including a fan in a rocking gorilla costume!), Equiliberation brought the accessive rock to Super Happy Fun Land last night! With only three rehearsals to knock off a year's worth of rust (since our last reunion show), we, nevertheless, put on an entirely respectable performance. While not perfect, it was tremdendously fun, and it left Ryan, Elliott, and Fred considering the possibility of performing during the weeks of Thanksgiving and/or Christmas. Fred hopes to post some video of the performance in the coming weeks, so check back here for a peek at what went down.

Super Happy Fun Land was a cool venue, and the guys there were kind enough to invite us to come back whenever we want to play again. So, perhaps we will rock their spacious stage again for our next live performance.

The performance also served as Equiliberation's official release show for our debut CD, Equiliberation, which became available for download from CDBaby on the day of the show. Within the next few days, the disc will become available on iTunes, Amazon, Napster, Rhapsody, and Spotify, among others. We are enormously proud of Equiliberation, and we hope all of our fans purchase it and find it as musically satisfying as we do.

For posterity's sake, our set list for the show was (1) "Jazz Gone Wrong," (2) "Oxymorons," (3) "Anywhere," (4) "Some Wounds," (5) "Pulverize," (6) "Hope," and (7) "Equiliberation."

2nd Annual Summer Reunion Show!

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

One week from today, on the auspiciously odd date of 7/9/11, Equiliberation will play its 2nd annual summer reunion show. This year, we are Equiliberating Houston. We are second on a bill at Super Happy Fun Land, following The Fly Trap and preceding Squirt Gun Warriors.

Super Happy Fun Land's address is 3801 Polk Street, Houston, Texas 77003. The club's web address is www.superhappyfunland.com.

The Fly Trap starts the evening's music offerings at 8:00 pm. We follow at 9:00 pm. Since Squirt Gun Warriors follow at 10:00, we will be playing a 45-minute show. So, if you plan to come out to experience Equiliberation - to get your annual dose of live accessive rock - don't be late!

Fred, Ryan, and Elliott are all excited about playing our first show ever in Houston. We hope to see you there!

Happy 4th, Equiliberation.com!

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Today is Equiliberation.com's fourth birthday. Happy birthday to us! We're still around and vital enough to warrant the monthly expenditure for a spot in cyberspace! Yea! Speech, Equiliberation.com! Speech!

Reunification Rocked!

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

What can we say about our first show in three years? It was fun! We rocked! We discovered we could put on a halfway-decent performance with only two rehearsals!

Yes, things were far from perfect... Ryan's bass was blasting so loudly in the stage monitors that Elliott and Fred could hardly hear themselves... Fred's multi-effects guitar pedal was possessed by gremlins seemingly bent on sabotaging the show at every turn (even managing to turn the thing off in the middle of a song, rendering Fred's guitar mute)... Fred momentarily forgot the pre-chorus chords to "Oxymorons".... Yet, despite all of the little mishaps and mistakes, we simply had a blast being together on stage again. Truly, reunification rocked!

Before we recall the set list for posterity and thank our audience members, we first need to send out a huge "thank you!" to Mike Boudreaux for booking us at Red Eyed Fly. Thank you so much, Mike! We really had a great time! We also have to thank Chuck, the house sound engineer. Thanks, man! The folks who came out to see us said you made us sound great!

So, what did we play for our first live show in three years? Well, the set list was "Jazz Gone Wrong," "Oxmorons," "Anywhere," "Some Wounds," "Pulverize," "Hope," and "Equiliberation." Happily, we got through all of them in 45 minutes! None of them were 100% perfect, but they ALL rocked!

Now, we must thank our audience members for coming and sharing in the fun (actually, we should say, "we must thank our audience members for coming and making the fun possible," since playing for no one is NO fun). So, from the bottom of our accessively rocking hearts, thank you Rick, Taylor, Paige, Morgan, Liz, Tim, and Ed!

Taylor Ash deserves even more thanks because he filmed the whole show for us! So, thank you, again, Taylor! Fred is already working on getting some of the video online so that those of you who could not make it to Austin will have a chance to experience Equiliberation, too!

When the night was over, Fred, Elliott, and Ryan agreed that the most significant truth we gleaned from the show was that we could pull off a 45-minute set with only two rehearsals after a three year hiatus. We also agreed that our ability to perform with so little rehearsal meant we should start planning to play shows whenever we are all in Texas. Therefore, Equiliberation's next performance might be at Thanksgiving or Christmas instead of a year from now. So, start checking this website more frequently, because your next chance to experience Equiliberation might be sooner than you'd think!

The Joy of Equiliberation!

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

At 10:30 a.m. yesterday morning in Houston, the members of Equiliberation convened for our first real rehearsal in almost three years. Fred, Ryan, and Elliott were a bit nervous about how much corrosion we might have to blast through before our gig on the 28th, but, happily, we played though our tentative set list with relatively few problems. Frankly, it was delightful to discover that there is a real possibility we will be able to put on a good reunion show at Red Eyed Fly.

Not being afraid to put our musical selves on the line, we packed up after our rehearsal, drove across town to a high-school-graduation party, unpacked our equipment, and played a four-song set for the members of our extended family. Again, we didn't perform perfectly, but we didn't embarrass ourselves, either. In fact, we held our own pretty convincingly!

So, if you are out there reading this, and you are wondering whether or not it will be worth it to see us three weeks from today, our answer is... it just might be a show worthy of a three-year wait! We certainly hope it will be!